The New Health Care Bill Picked Apart by Lobbyist Groups in Health Reform
Now that the health care bill has been voted into law, lobbyists are changing their tactics, shifting from a focus either for or against the bill to one of interpreting the bill and implementing the new mandates in a way that helps their cause.
For example, the National Federation of Independent Business is currently working to make the tax cuts scheduled for small businesses easier to understand and receive. Many small businesses will be eligible for the cuts this year.
They are also asking for a clarification of the law as it applies to those companies who already offer insurance, and who will therefore qualify for the “grandfather” clause that exempts them from some rules.
The AARP is also on the case, working to safeguard the physical and financial well-being of America’s seniors. Checks from the federal government designed to close the “doughnut hole” between what Medicare pays for and what prescription drugs cost for most seniors are due to go out later this year. The AARP wants to make sure those checks go where they need to go, and that other promises made to seniors during the creation of the bill are kept.
The American Nurses Association is also lobbying right now to help nurses fill the gap between a growing shortfall of primary care physicians and the number of aging Americans in need of home-based care. TheANA is hoping that by allowing nurses to direct medical teams in the care of Medicare beneficiaries, nurses will enjoy more authority in their field.
And the American Hospital Association is campaigning for their own say in how state-based insurance pools mandated for the year 2014 will be arranged and implemented. Hospitals and insurers commonly negotiate over the costs of procedures and treatments, and hospitals don’t want to end up spending more than they already do on medical costs.
In terms of actual enrollment in the new health care bill, the consumer group Families USA is working with hospitals, insurers, drug makers and more to make sure that Americans can easily and quickly sign up for health insurance or Medicaid before medical coverage becomes mandated by law. Increasing medical coverage will also ease the burden of medical costs carried by hospitals that regularly pay to treat the uninsured.
These and many other lobbying associations are focusing heavily on how the new health care bill will impact the economy as well as the health of American citizens. The law itself is fairly complicated, but fortunately there’s another 3 1/2 years before the majority of the new mandates take effect, giving both supporters and opponents of the bill plenty of time to struggle over exactly how the final health care bill will look.
